Dear Josh

First let me start by saying I never thought I would write something like this. And I would never do it for anyone except you. Because you deserve it.

I love you.

I love that the first thing you ever said to me was “Hey, girl!” I love to tell the story that I instantly turned around, rolled my eyes, and walked away annoyed. But the truth is- and I’ll never admit this again- I hoped I’d run into you again. I thought you were cute, even in your size 3x basketball clothes, huge fake diamond earrings, and sleeves rolled up to to show off your gigantic tattoo.. I know.. paints a pretty picture, doesn’t it? 🤣

I love that we were together for 6 years before we got married. We both came from divorced families and wanted to be sure we’d make it. But besides honestly being my best friend (gag I know, so corny) One of the traits I admired most and held the most weight when we talked about marriage was knowing the kind of father you would be. We had very similar ideas and beliefs when it came to raising kids but most importantly I knew that you agreed to put the kids first. And while that sometimes means taking a backseat for us, we always agreed we would have a lifetime together and to prioritize the kids while they were young and needed us most.

I love that like your selfless views on being a dad, you always put our family first. You are without a doubt the hardest working person I know. People always joke that you work so much- but they TRULY don’t understand. You wake up early and go to work all day. You come home and devote yourself to the kids and me. Then you stay up into the wee hours finishing your work before trying to squeeze into the sliver of bed space the kids and I have left for you. And you rarely complain. Well… you definitely complain about how much space we take up in the bed, but that’s about it.

I love that you always call me when something exciting happens. And that you love to share what’s happening at work. And when you ask me to help you respond to your 50+ unread text messages.

I love that you always want to help everyone. You run a very successful sports company that you could clearly make lots of money from but instead you put it all back into the program because you want it to be the best that it can be and you want kids to have the best experience they can. You answer literally every text message and email people send you- even the ridiculous questions I tell you to ignore because “that’s not your job.” And while many people blame me for all the dogs- not many people know you’re the softy who saw those sad faces and wanted to save them.

I love that you let me be the boss but don’t let me boss you around. Somehow you know exactly how to “handle” my strong-willed, opinionated, outspoken, indecisive, stubborn self. And most of all, I love that you don’t think any of those traits are negative.

So… anyone that knows me knows I’m not the mushy type and this post is VERY unlike me… but like I said, you deserve it. Oh, and Happy Birthday!